vampires

A Book Review: Twilight

My daughter Jennifer is thirteen years old.  She has read all four of the Twilight books.  For the past year or so, these books have been the “in thing” with female teenagers of this generation.  I would hear her talk about how Edward was a good vampire and in love with Bella and he would never hurt her.  I would just say to her there’s no such thing as a good vampire.  The movie came out and she went to see it with her girlfriends.  Then, the movie came out on dvd and she bought it.  We all sat on the couch and had popcorn and watched Twilight the movie.  It was a decent movie.  Jennifer had been begging me to read the book.  Her mom had already read three of the four novels.  I told her I would read it.

I guess you would have to say I’m a vampire traditionalist.  Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a great short novel that spawned our popular culture’s fascination with vampires for the next hundred years and counting.  You know the traditional stuff like they will shrink away from crosses and sunlight will kill them and you need to wear garlic around your neck for protection.  To my surprise and delight, the author has dismissed these attributes and added some new ones of her own.  They are still  immortal and they don’t have a beating heart.  However, the can be “good” and not prey on humans.  They can sustain themselves on animals just as well.

If you continue reading into the second, third and fourth books, there are also werewolves that are introduced.  I know it sounds corny with werewolves and vampires together, but if you just let yourself go with it, then it can be quite entertaining.  Better than anything you can watch on tv, for sure.  I was never really intrigued or interested in werewolf legends myself.  I have always found the idea of a vampire more fascinating.  By the popularity of the novels, there must be great interest in werewolf lore.  I just can’t get Lon Chaney running around in black and white with fake hair all over his face out of my head.  However, the novelist does a good job of giving werewolves a new twist, also.

It’s really not the vampire lore and story that makes these books so appealing to young women.  The books are really a love story.  A love story from the perspective of a seventeen year old young woman.  The dialogue is detailed and you see the development of a relationship through the eyes of the woman.  I found it fascinating.  Do women really think this way?  Can they really be this fragile inside and yet so strong at other times?  According to my wife, yes.  Its boy meets girl with a vampire twist, but very well done.

The really interesting thing is to see the hope and wonder for true love in my daughter’s eyes.  As a father, I am and I am not looking forward to witnessing all her experiences over the next few years, but I’ll get over it.

Got to go, to see if I can steal the fourth book off my wife’s nightstand.

Share